Chinese cuisine

Strolling in Sydney’s Chinatown can be an intriguing experience no matter for tourists or Sydney residents. Put traditional Chinese architectures which may stimulate foreigners’ curiosity aside, Chinese cuisine, specialty gift stores and the night market rendered with Chinese alive and festive atmosphere are possibly the common hobbies that bring people to this rewarding place.

The gateway of Chinatown (Photo: Yan Xu)

A glance at Chinatown

Historically, the large-scale migration leads to the increasing development of Chinatowns in Australia. Nowadays, Chinatown has experienced a great change compared with the past, a “bridge” that connects the trade among the countries and regions, which should be owed to the rapid pace of globalization in the past few decades. One can say that this antique tourist attraction has gone through and witnessed the historical changing. Sydney’s Chinatown was initially located in the Rocks in the late 19th century. It did not establish its current location until the 1920s, namely Dixon Street, close to Central Station and Darling Harbour, which has become Australia’s largest Chinatown. There are two apparent traditional Chinese ‘Paifang’ at each end of the narrow pedestrian street, which separate the traditional street with metropolitan bustling streets. As a heritage that mixed diverse ethnic groups as well as past and contemporary Chinese cultures and several businesses districts, there is a lot to explore. In particular the unexpected popularity of Chinese food like steamed meat filled buns, pan fried pork buns, fried dumplings and Sichuan hotpot has made Sydney’s Chinatown be home to multi-culture and food paradise.

What to expect?

Emperor’s Cream Puffs, Meet Fresh, New Chilli House, Golden Harbour Restaurant and the night market in Sydney’s Chinatown are extremely salient among a variety of restaurants and scenic spots. What makes them mysterious and keep attractive for long, and how they help to make Chinatown an appealing place to go?

the New Chilli House

When I walked into the New Chilli House, it was early morning, there are few customers. However, the waiters and waitresses have already started to clean up the restaurant, with Chinese pop music played. Then Vic came over, with a kind smile. Vic, one of the owners of the New Chilli House, when understood my purpose for coming here, felt so proud and patient. As he talked about the history of the restaurant, it only with a two-year history in Sydney’s Chinatown, but it has been one of the most popular restaurants in Chinatown, in particular in the evening, customs sit outside the restaurant, eat the food, chat and enjoy the night scene. Vic seemed quite pride and confident with the food. As he said that, “the majority of the restaurants in Chinatown are actually Cantonese cuisine, only our restaurant is the most traditional and authentic DongBei cuisine. I guess in the entire Sydney, you cannot find a much more authentic DongBei cuisine like in this restaurant”.

the New Chilli House. (Photo: Yan Xu)

When I asked about the special dishes in this restaurant, Vic said, “there are so many tasty food here. Steamed meat filled buns, pan fried meat filled buns, chicken and prawn dim sim and fried pork chives/cabbage dumplings. In order to meed different needs of the customers, we also have crystal prawn dumplings, although it is actually Cantonese cuisine, and steamed meat filled buns is Shanghainese food. But the most important is that we have hand-made steamed dumplings, which are the very traditional North food of China”.

“There is a little different of both Chinese and Aussie taste. We found that the majority of foreigners are actually quite fond of diverse kinds of Chinese dumplings, and also, our sizzling hot pots are quite welcome and popular among them. But for Chinese, they are more willing to choose simple home cooked food, special DongBei cuisine such as stir fried eggplant in mild spicy sauce, stir fried eggplant with potato and candied sweet potato are most Chinese choice”, Vic said, “that’s why we made two menus, one specifically designed for foreigners, the other is for Chinese based on such a difference, just for their convenience”.

“Why do you want to operate a restaurant here?” I asked.

“Haha, it’s a good place, isn’t it?”

“It may hard to say which can represent Chinese cuisine, I think the north and south of China food are quite different”, Vic pondered for a moment and said slowly.

Close to the mysteries

In this narrow street, many seemingly unimpressive restaurants are unexpectedly with quite an impressive history. Precisely as the owner of the Golden Harbour Restaurant said with a proud tone, “we’ve already have a history of more than 27 years here”, with such a long history, this restaurant provides all kinds of traditional Cantonese dumplings, customers prefer enjoying them and siting outside the restaurant, blending with the vivid atmosphere just for a relaxed afternoon or evening. Emperor’s Cream Puffs, which merely provides one kind of desserts but quite popular here. Everyday, no matter Chinese or Aussie queue in line waiting for the oven-fresh sweet dessert. As a staff working here said, “almost everyday, since the early morning we open the store, people are already queue in line for buying the cream puffs”. Most of the time, foreigners are much more fond of the cream puffs. Diverse dumplings for foreigners are recognized as the representative Chinese cuisine. The night market gathered many people in Sydney’s Chinatown, people who come here may not consider too much, but precisely there are not much to think about, just the diverse food and a vivid and lively atmosphere that separate people with daily busy life.

Not the end

After experienced a short “trip” lost in Sydney’s Chinatown, a real enjoyment for your stomach and mind. It may hard to generally conclude the characteristics of Chinese cuisine, in this narrow street filled with diverse food and scenes. Without too much concern, perhaps just lost in the place, that’s what we have fun and then enjoy the diverse life and the pluralism of culture behind.

Strolling in Sydney’s Chinatown can be an intriguing experience no matter for tourists or people live in Sydney. Put traditional Chinese architectures which may stimulate foreigners’ curiosity aside, Chinese cuisine and specialty gift stores should be the common interests that bring people to this rewarding place.

A glance at Chinatown

Historically, the large-scale migration leads to the increasingly development of Chinatowns in Australia. Nowadays, ‘the rapid pace of globalization in the past few decades has brought significant changes over Chinatown, and it has become a ‘gateway’ for intensified transnational flows of people, investments, goods and services between Australia and Asia’ (Ang, 2012). Sydney’s Chinatown was initially located in the Rocks in the late 19th century. It did not establish its current location until the 1920s, namely Dixon Street, close to Central Station and Darling Harbour, which is Australia’s largest Chinatown. There are two apparent traditional Chinese ‘Paifang’ at each end of the narrow pedestrian street, which separate this traditional street with metropolitan bustling streets. As a heritage that mixed diverse ethnic groups and past and contemporary Chinese cultures, there is a lot to enjoy. And besides, Chinese food like steamed meat filled buns, pan fried pork buns, fried dumplings and Sichuan hotpot are quite welcome.

Aim and interviews

In this feature article, I am going to shed light on what these ‘five secrets’ are by identifying Emperor’s Garden Restaurant, Emperor’s Cream Puffs, Meet Fresh, New Chilli House and the night market, what make them mysterious and attractive and how they help to make Chinatown an attractive place to go.

Initially, I intend to interview the owners of the above restaurants and stores, focus on the following questions

the brief history of the restaurants and list some special dishes

the receptions of these food, which respectively attracts Chinese and Aussie most

in their perspective, what makes them popular

whether they attempt to make some adjusting that the flavor more cater to Aussie’s taste

What is the difference between them operate the catering industry in China and in Sydney

In terms of consumers and visitors, I will ask questions as follow

what food do you like best and why

what do you think that can represent Chinese cuisine

what factors do you think that stimulate you to go there

In terms of the night market in Sydney’s Chinatown, questions can be asked like, do Sydney has such markets? And what is the difference? I will also ask the store owners which attract people most.

I will connect answers of above questions with official websites that introducing Sydney Chinatown to conclude the features and representatives of Chinatown, and the deep reasons that make it welcome.

Suggested online publications and user group

As this feature article provides information on food, entertainment, lifestyle and way for understanding Chinatown, which focuses on something relaxing and entertaining, therefore, I would suggest it can be published to the ‘Lifestyle’ column of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian. Besides, broadsheet.com.au should also be a good choice, as it particularly focuses on food and entertainment. Such feature articles may appeal to people who are interested in Chinese cuisine and would like to know more about Chinatown. Also, it may raise considerations on transcultural phenomenon.